Hi there!  Thank you very much for finding your way here!  As many of you already know, this site is really a continuation of a blog that was originally hosted on Wordpress.  The blog grew to a point where there really needed to be some additional capabilities that Wordpress just couldn't provide.  This started the search for a better overall solution.  This site is the result of that search.  I really do hope that all of you come to think of this site as your home for good music, good company and a good environment. 

One of the neat things about this site is that each of you has the ability to post your own music here.  All that is necessary is for you to become a member.  Of course, membership is free and offers some of those capabilities that were mentioned earlier.  If we start to get more posters, not only will the site grow, but it will also become much more than just a site.  My ultimate goal for it is to become an active community where people with similar tastes in music can share their opinions, views & feelings about our kind of music.

In the coming weeks and months, additional capabilities will be added to help increase your experience here at QuietMelodies.  A couple to look forward to will be the new forum & a request page that can be edited and added to by the members.  Right now, the updates will be happening as fast as I possibly can.  This process can be sped up by everyone helping out in terms of making their own posts with music that was available on http://quietmusic.wordpress.com.  Of course, not only the music found there, but anything that can be considered New Age or it's subsidiaries will be most welcome here!

All in all, I've got a very good feeling about this site and the community that we will become.  Each of you have abilities and talents that make you unique, thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking the chance and sharing yourself with us.

Best,
Bright

Harold van der Heijden: Heart Dynamics Drum kit with a Roland TD 20.
Frank Dorittke: Line 6 Pod Pro with 2 guitars.
Ron Boots: Roland SE 20, Moog Voyager, Korg M3 & Koassilator, Nord Electro 3, DSI Prophet 08 and a Waldorf Blofeld.

In the many years Dutch synthesist Ron Boots is active in the world of electronic music, he has given numerous concerts. As always, he is accompanied by great musicians who bring something extra and special to his music. "Derby!" is recorded live at the AD Electronic Music Festival at the Derby Guildhall in the United Kingdom on the afternoon of September 5th 2009. The album came out at E-Live 2009 which was held at October 17th, so that was quick work! At this performance, Ron plays together with two excellent musicians: Harold van der Heijden on drums and Frank Dorittke (FD Project) on electric guitar. The nine tracks on "Derby!" are not new compositions but most of them are known pieces with new arrangements.

It opens with "A Half Hour Of The Wolf" which is based on "Hour Of The Wolf" from the "See Beyond Times, Look Beyond Words" album. Starting with a wonderful ambient moment, the music goes into a big sounding sequencertrack that almost remind of the 'rock' period of Tangerine Dream ("Cyclone", "Force Majeure").
With "Howling Whispers" Ron and his friends visit "Screaming Whispers", one of his best albums. This piece is built up excellently, from slow until very fast, and shows Frank on guitar.
He can be heard again -and very clearly- on "Giants In The Derby Sky" ("Giants In The Skies" from "Beyond The Boundaries Of Twilight") which is almost progressive rock.
On of Ron’s most magical moments, "Detachment Of Worldly Affairs", return at the concert in "Reattachment Of Worldly Affairs". It brings back happy moments.
"Acoustic Shadows" was a very inspired album and shows some of Ron’s greatest moments. From this album the menacing symphonic titletrack and "Battle Of The Somme", with lovely sequences, are played. Frank shines again on "Canyon" (with a thrusting sequence) and "A Storm In The Guildhall", bringing it almost into a Mike Oldfield-atmosphere.
"Tainted Bare Skin" is still one of Ron’s most favourite albums along his fans. Happily, the trio play a piece from that CD. Frank’s guitar brings "Tainted Bare Skin At The International" to a whole new level. The sequences, rhythms and sounds are still impressive.

It was a while ago since Ron’s last live album came out. "Derby!" is a welcome addition to his impressive amount of live recordings. Electronic music should not be kept 'hidden' at some attic but should be shared with the fans. On "Derby!" Ron does that in an great way.

"Derby!" is an excellent opus which will please for sure the fans of Ron Boots, but also the fans of space and progressive rock.

Recommended.

In complement to "Beyond The Boundaries Of Twilight" album, Ron Boots offers to his fans a limited edition of 400 CD's of his musical reflections regarding concerts which he presented in diverse planetariums in his last 7 years. "The Boundary Tales" is an album very near "Beyond The Boundaries Of Twilight", but with a more intimate touch where the rhythm goes alongside to long atmospheric passages sometimes poetic, sometimes atonal.

The album opens with "Die Geschichte", a German replica of the track"The Story" whom we find on "Beyond The Boundaries Of Twilight". Poetic, "Tranquil" is a musical sweetness which bathes in galactic aurora borealis where cosmic waves recover an atonal twinkling luminosity.
A contrast of tranquility compared with the boiling "Look Up To The Sky" and its funky jazz rhythm, with its trumpets sonorities, tinted by a techno approach. A title that recalls the madness tribal celebrations of Mind Over Matter with these tablas percussions and its ethereal voices which flow with a zombie insistence. The rhythm is heavy and leans on a resonant bass which a synth encircles of hopping and stroboscopic arpeggios. A burning, and stunning, title from Boots repertory.
"Probes And Shuttles" is a slow spatial journey where the atmospheres inherent to the operations of space shuttles or NASA operations rooms prevail on a very ambient and cosmic movement.
"A Clear View" is very representative of its title with its crystalline chords which skip such galactic xylophone keys on a soft synth of which orchestral oscillations take a moving tangent. It’s soft, warm and very inspired. Ron Boots brings us where he wants.
A suave fluty synth opens the atmospheric passage of "Tarnished Drops". A fine sequence appears slowly from this morphic movement, drawing heavy oscillations which pound with strength before plunging into a beautiful synth / sequencer rhythmic fusion. Fine keys flutter in this somber sound mass from where a soft synthesized breath leaks out. Slowly the synth coats the sequential stream, which keeps the same rhythmic frenzy, shaping a more limpid movement where arpeggios skip in a sound whirlwind filled of heavy undulations. A very good title which suits marvelously the planetariums universe of Ron Boots.
As its title indicates, "Serenity" is of an astral tranquility with its soft keys which hesitate to clear themselves a passage among this long corridor dotted of galactic sounds.
"Do We Believe" begins with fine synthesized loops which wave with a fine serpentine echo. An echo which draws a light hiccupping movement before falling under an untimely percussions avalanche movements, creating a fascinating symphonic anarchy where chaos is pierced from everywhere by a synth to echoing arpeggios and twisted solos.
"The Story" concludes "The Boundary Tales" with a minimalism loops music which rolls in a sound universe slightly animated by heavy pulsations which throb in a twinkling sound adornment. The same music as "The Story", without words.

"The Boundary Tales" isn’t the kind of album which contains the rests of musical ideas forgotten in time. Without having the impact of its older brother ("Beyond The Boundaries Of Twilight"), it’s more spacey, floating and cosmic. But it contains some very beautiful titles which illustrate very well the sense of the structures and the melodies which light up Ron Boots creativity.

Recommended.

Musician Ron Boots did several planetarium concerts in the past seven years or so, but it never came to a CD release. "Beyond The Boundaries Of Twilight", released at Ron’s Planetarium concert in Bochum, Germany on May 24, fills this "gap", offering 71 minutes of both atmospheric and dynamic but always captivating music.

The background of the conceptual music is told by Ron on the second piece "The Story". Although almost all music on the album is made by Ron, the encompassing music at times is complimented by some great guitar parts by Frank Dorittke (aka F.D. Project).

After some harsh metallic sounds at the intro of the opening track "Cradle of Life", the sonic journey into endless spaces smoothly takes off on the following eight tracks: emotional soundscapes, groovy, multi-layered and choir synthpads, synth solos and rhythms lead the way, reaching its first peak on "In the Skies".

The deep, freeform cosmic spaces are explored on "The Vastness of Space", later on flowing in the slowly sequenced, spacious realms of "Galactic Traveller". The music shifts to a higher gear again on the rhythmic "Sunrise on FarPoint Station", after which we arrive at the emotional "Heroes", which creates a 7-minute momentum of reflection. I remember especially this track worked out much stronger when played live.

The finale of "Beyond The Boundaries Of Twilight" excels once more with the dynamic 8-minute "Giants In The Skies", a marvellous track opening with vintage sounds, but soon drums and a good dose of Frank’s excellent guitar solos kick in.

As an extra to "Beyond The Boundaries Of Twilight", Ron also released in 2009 the CD "Boundary Tales" (a limited edition of 400 copies). It contains eight tracks of additional music which Ron composed over a period of seven years that adds to the same story, but overall taking a bit more unusual, mysterious and even slightly experimental approach to the same concept. "Boundary Tales" is for those who love a deeper, more adventurous listening experience.